Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away [Paperback]

Richard Brautigan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 1995

Three unforgettable Brautigan masterpieces reissued in a one-volume omnibus edition.

REVENGE OF THE LAWN: Originally published in 1971, these bizarre flashes of insight and humor cover everything from "A High Building in Singapore" to the "Perfect California Day." This is Brautigan's only collection of stories and includes "The Lost Chapters of TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA."

THE ABORTION: AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE 1966: A public library in California where none of the books have ever been published is full of romantic possibilities. But when the librarian and his girlfriend must travel to Tijuana, they have a series of strange encounters in Brautigan's 1971 novel.

SO THE WIND WON'T BLOW IT ALL AWAY: It is 1979, and a man is recalling the events of his twelfth summer, when he bought bullets for his gun instead of a hamburger. Written just before his death, and published in 1982, this novel foreshadowed Brautigan's suicide.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) was a god of the counterculture and the author of ten novels, nine volumes of poetry, and a collection of short stories.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (February 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395706742
• ISBN-13: 978-0395706749
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very well selected collection of an icon's best work August 7, 2000

By J. Remington

Format:Paperback

With the possible exception of The Hawkline Monster, Revenge of the Lawn represents Brautigan's best work. It is a collection of wonderfully loopy stories that although they may not focus on developing a specific narrative thrust, instead hone in on capturing a real sense of time, place and experience. Each piece is certaintly idiosyncratic and individualistic only to the unique voice that was the late Brautigan. As a fellow native of the Pacific Northwest, I find his work as collected here sentimental, haunting and vividly descriptive and alive. It is also a fine example of regionalistic literature as his work, while abhereing to the old addage "only the most personal is the most universal", simply couldn't occur in any other region of the world- and that makes it live in all geographical locations. The other stories collected here, may loose some of Revenge of the Lawn's focus, they never the less reflect a sadly overlooked American writer.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So the Wind ... I fell down laughing! January 22, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I remember reading So The Wind Won't Blow it All Away for the first time. I was riding in a greyhound bus with the scent of blue hair ladies in front of me. Brautigan discussed his childhood love of cheesburgers and Superman and I couldn't stop laughing. The bus driver had to pull over and take me off the bus to ask me to shut up. Brautigan is a master of words. His visions are fresh and celebratory. I could read his work over and over. If this is your first Brautigan book you will not be let down. He hasn't written a book that will let you down. This one is no exception. Probably his finest three books in one!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Revenge of the Lawn reveals many faces of Richard Brautigan January 12, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

A short time ago it seemed to me that Richard Brautigan was almost as forgotten as the Iron Butterfly, Mr. Natural and other later-century cultural phenomena that were once so much a part of young people's lives; I thought I was one of the few people left who read him. Happily, I was wrong. Brautigan still has something to say to readers at the turn of the 20th Century and "Revenge of the Lawn" is a good way to get to know him. The "stories" (some are just vignettes or even, like "The Scarlatti Tilt", just fragments of prose) reveal the different faces of Brautigan: the playful fantasy-smith, the somber memoirist, the ironic observer from the margins of society, the sexual adventurer, the literary craftsman, and even the loving husband and father. When I first read this book years ago, I just enjoyed the humor and irony. Re-reading it now, I can appreciate its human depths and its technique. "I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone" is Brautigan at his imaginative best, comparing a girl(sorry, feminists--I don't doubt she was really a woman) to a heroic New Deal documentary about rural electrification, which he relates in turn to the Greek myth of Prometheus bringing fire to humankind."Suddenly, heroically, with the throwing of a switch, there was light for the farmer.." In some ways reminiscent of "Letters From My Windmill" by Alphonse Daudet, "Revenge of the Lawn" may be one of the best ways for a new reader to get to know Richard Brautigan. Personally, I can say it has had the same spirit-lifting effect for me in bad times as Daudet's work. Recommended!